Builders of both commercial and noncommercial buildings are constantly looking for new innovative products in order to make buildings more energy efficient, to better protect them from the weather as well as make the buildings more aesthetically pleasing.
Energy efficiency is directly related to thermal insulation. That is, the less energy lost to the surrounding environment by the building structure, the less energy required to heat the building. A well-insulated building leads to increased energy savings. As for weatherproofing, products that increase water shedding (hydrophobicity) enhance the weatherproofing of the building. However, numerous products on the market today that have improved thermal insulation as well as enhanced water shedding are not as aesthetically pleasing as less efficient products that are designed for this purpose. One product currently in use today in the building industry is stucco. Although stucco has some good qualities, it suffers from a number of very serious shortcomings.
That is, since stucco is made up almost exclusively of sand and cement, it is porous and quite pervious to moisture. This not only can lead to severe structural damage due to fungus and mildew formation when the underlying substrate is plywood or a similar material but can also lead to water damage of interior walls. In addition, the porous nature of stucco results in a loss of energy to the surrounding environment, which leads to, increased energy costs. In addition, stucco is a very rigid covering and offers only mediocre impact resistance. Rigidity is an especially undesirable characteristic when combined with moisture permeability and, for this reason, stucco has a limited life span when exposed to repeated freeze/thaw cycles because the water absorbed expands and contracts as it freezes and thaws and thus creates internal fractures in the stucco facing that grow and allow even more water to infiltrate through to the underlying substrate. Stucco is therefore not well suited for use in areas subject to freezing temperatures.
One way that these problems can be combated, is to apply water-sealing agents to the outer surface of the stucco finish. However, the sealants available on the market today that can be applied to a porous stucco finish are formulated as liquids and contain volatile organic compounds (VOC) that are not only harmful for the environment but create numerous health risks for workers applying these sealants. In addition, these sealants contain numerous organic materials that require the sealant to be shipped in liquid form instead of in a ready mix dry form, which drastically adds to the shipping costs associated with these products. Moreover, liquid sealants have strict storing and shipping requirements, present additional hazards when shipped, and have a limited shelf life due to possible chemical separation/break down of these liquid sealants.
Therefore, what is needed is a dehydrated composition that upon hydration can be applied to a porous surface in order to sufficiently fill in the pores, cracks, and crevices of the surface to be coated so as to create a water shedding (hydrophobic) finish having a strengthened, smooth esthetically pleasing surface. Also needed is a sealant that in addition to the aforementioned features can provide increased flexibility to the rather rigid stucco finish when applied. The increased flexibility will reduce cracking of a traditional stucco surface due to normal shifting of building material over time. The present invention provides such a composition as well as a method for applying the composition to a prepared surface. The composition and methods of the present invention are further discussed and described in the sections that directly follow.